I'm a big fan of having product
suggestions in my Unity Dash search results. Why? First and foremost, I work
from home — so, there isn't any semblance of "Big Brother" looking down over my
virtual shoulder. Another reason is because I do a lot of online shopping, and seeing products that are recommended can be beneficial. But for many users, these search results are more an invasion of
privacy than a convenience.

Thankfully, the Ubuntu developers had that in mind
when they developed the Smart Scopes tool. With the help of a single button,
you can disable online search results complete. If you don't want to completely
disable the system, you can pick and choose what services you want to use.

Disable completely

First, let's walk through how to disable the online results
completely. This is done from within the System Settings tool. Simply follow these
steps:

Click
the Super (or Windows) key on your keyboard

Type
Settings

From
the results, click the System Settings button

Click
on Security & Privacy

Click
the Search tab

Click
the On/Off button (Figure A) so that it changes to Off

Close
the System Settings

Figure A

Online search results are disabled here.

Disable selectively

You can also disable the results selectively. For example, you might want to keep the Amazon results, but disable the eBay and other results. Here's how:

Click
on the Super (or Windows) keyboard

Click
Filter results

Scroll
through the available options (Figure B) and click to disable/enable*

Close
the Dash

* Filters are shaded in white when enabled.

Figure B

The Unity Dash search in action.

For power users only

As you might expect, you can also disable specific filters
from the command line. This is not nearly as easy as the method above, because
you have to know the name of the specific filter. For example, if you want to
disable Amazon, eBay, UbuntuOne Music Store, UbuntuOne Shop, and skimlinks, here is the command you would use:

You can both disable and enable
from the command line. If you want to enable those scopes you've disabled, you
would replace disabled-scopes with enabled-scopes.

Ubuntu Unity is one of the
most user-friendly, efficient desktop interfaces I have ever used. Although I
tend to use the online results in my Dash searches, if you prefer more
anonymity, you now know how to either completely or selectively disable online
results.

Do you enable or disable your Unity Dash online search results? Please share any tips or tricks for making the best use of this feature in the discussion thread below.

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About Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website getjackd.net.

Full Bio

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website getjackd.net.